Lunenburg school board backs halt to football season

Thursday

Nov 21, 2013 at 6:00 AMNov 21, 2013 at 12:24 PM

By Paula J. Owen TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

LUNENBURG — In a packed auditorium at Lunenburg High School, the School Committee Wednesday night would not reconsider Superintendent Loxi Jo Calmes' decision to forfeit the rest of the games of the football season in the wake of a racist hate crime last week against one of the players.

After 90 minutes of public comment on the issue from numerous football players and their families, students, concerned residents, — some who said they were bullied while attending school in Lunenburg — and from the father of 13-year-old Isaac A. Phillips, who was the target of hazing that culminated with the spray painting of a racial slur on the foundation of his home, none of the School Committee members made the required motion needed to consider overruling Ms. Calmes' decision.

Before the meeting started, School Committee Chairman Gregory Berthiaume offered his deepest sorrow to the Phillips family and said the act was the lowest point in his tenure as chairman.

Ms. Calmes said she will release information Thursday regarding the investigation into the matter and also the probe into alleged racial slurs by Lunenburg players against South High Community School in Worcester earlier this month.

Mr. Berthiaume said Ms. Calmes had his full support.

Isaac's father, Anthony J. Phillips, told the School Committee his family is losing sleep over the situation, his 8-year-old is asking if he'll have to leave his school, and Isaac does not want to go back to the school.

"It is affecting my family a lot more than you know," he said.

He said he was shocked at some of the comments made by football players and their families at a selectmen's meeting the night before, only four days after his wife found the phrase "Knights don't need n-----" painted on their house.

The football team is nicknamed the Blue Knights. Isaac's father is black and his mother is white.

"Four days after the whole thing with Isaac, everyone cares about the football game," he said.

Anyone who supports the game being played, he said, is condoning the racist behavior and sending the message it is OK.

"We don't know who it is," he said. "It is obviously a football issue."

He urged the "cowards" who did it to come forward.

As Blue Knights captain Nathan Nash was speaking and said he didn't think anyone on the team was capable of criminal activity, Isaac's mother Andrea Brazier walked out of the auditorium.

Nathan, whose brother also plays on the team, said he and his teammates have done "everything we could" to find out who spray-painted Isaac's house. He admitted the junior varsity game a few weeks ago in Worcester against South High ended in a fight, but said the "reason is unknown" and is saddened that his teammates are being portrayed as racists before anything was proven.

Athletic Director Peter McCauliff said he advised Ms. Calmes before she made her decision of his concerns about safety if the game on Thanksgiving eve is hosted at the school. Lunenburg is one of the few high schools that play that night, he said.

"How in the world will we do it?" he said, referring to the amount of attention the issue has received.

Many people go out drinking that night and attend high school football games and there is a fierce rivalry between the Lunenburg school and its opponent, St. Bernard's Central Catholic High School.

Other people argued the issue was dividing the community and holding the game would unite it.

Lunenburg High School alumnus Stephen M. Flaherty, 20, from Rhode Island, said he drove two hours to talk at the meeting.

Mr. Flaherty said he witnessed insensitivity, exclusivity and hatred while attending Lunenburg High School and wasn't surprised when he saw what happened to Isaac on the news.

"As horrified as I am to see hateful, racist words spread across the home of one of our own, unfortunately I can't say I'm surprised," Mr. Flaherty said. "Nor would many others who have walked the halls of Lunenburg High School. Because as shocking as it is to see hate speech in bright Lunenburg-blue graffiti, hatred isn't only present when it's out in the open. I've heard the n-word spoken by many of my peers. I've heard 'faggot' shouted down the halls. I've heard the disdain in people's voices as they talk about the neighboring 'ghettoes.' But, we've been taught to see racism only as individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems of dominance and privilege. While I did not always feel accepted in Lunenburg, I recognize that I had it easier than some others, because I have had the privilege of being white in a town and a larger society where white is the majority, the invisible norm, to which any others are measured in contrast."

Contact Paula Owen at powen@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @PaulaOwenTG